May 2007 Long Beach Show Review

With few exceptions, coin shows are, for me, places to buy. So I typically judge my success at a coin show on how much I am able to purchase and if my new coins are interesting. On both fronts, I would have to say that the recent Long Beach show was a strong success. The funny thing is, the show itself seemed pretty slow. Until a few years ago, Long Beach had a very strong collector following and I could always count on staying busy on Friday and Saturday selling coins to collectors. This has clearly changed and I’d have to say that Long Beach is pretty much over these days by Thursday afternoon; i.e., it is a primarily wholesale-oriented show.

I’ve been having trouble buying coins at the last few shows I attended so I decided that I’d make a Herculean effort to find some interesting pieces at Long Beach. And I worked liked a dog; running from table to table and looking through boxes of coins from my usual sources and some dealers who I typically do not patronize.

I didn’t realize how much I bought—or how much I liked what I bought—until I returned home and wrote up my new purchases. Some of the highlights include the following:

A nice group of choice New Orleans gold coins including a lovely PCGS MS62 1857-O quarter eagle and an 1850-O eagle in NGC AU55.

A very rare 1841-O eagle graded AU53 by NGC.

Some attractive Charlotte and Dahlonega half eagles ranging in price from $2,500 to over $10,000.

A dazzling Condition Census 1852-D half eagle graded MS62 by NGC.

An 1846 eagle graded MS61 by NGC which is tied for the finest graded by any service.

As for the show itself, I would have to say it was pretty marginal. There was a decent amount of wholesale business being done but there was very little fresh material available. If you were the kind of dealer who regally sits behind your table and waits for coins to come marching up, you had a terrible Long Beach. If, like me, you hustled and hustled, you may well have “bought your way out” of the overall malaise which now seems to hang over the show.

That said, a number of interesting trends became apparent at the show. The first thing I noted was that as soon as many dealers panicked and dumped large portions of their positions on generics, gold spiked upwards. The second thing is that Indian Head quarter eagles seem to be back in play after a year or so in the dumps. I sold a few better dates I had in stock (1912, 1914-D and 1915) for my full asking price to the first person I showed them to. The final thing I noted is that collector grade coins in all series remain very popular. If you had coins like scarce date Bust and Seated silver coins or better date Bust gold, you were going to sell them very easily.

I did not participate in the pre-show auctions due to lack of time and lack of interest. I spent very little time (or money, for that matter...) at the Heritage sale. I did sell a number of coins in the auction and was very pleasantly surprised at how well they did.

I am anticipating that the market will be relatively slow for the rest of the month although I do expect the Baltimore show at the end of June to be excellent. I am attending the summer version of this show for the first time ever (usually I go on vacation at the end of the June but now that I live in the Northwest I actually want to stay around!) and would urge you to do the same if you live anywhere near Baltimore.

Impaired Proof Gold

Impaired Proof gold. What is it and do collectors covet these coins? This article takes a quick look at an interesting, little-understood subject. Proof gold coins were struck in very small quantities for collectors. Mintages figures for most issues produced before 1900 are extremely low; in many cases less than 50 coins per year. The typical survival rate for a pre-1900 Proof gold coin is around 50% of the original mintage figure. Most of the coins that have survived were handled with care and grade PR64 to PR66 by today’s interpretations. But a small percentage of the surviving Proofs were mishandled and now grade lower than this.

There are essentially two ways in which a Proof gold coin can become Impaired. It can either have been spent (accidentally or on purpose) and received wear from circulation or it could have been mishandled through improper storage and/or harsh cleaning(s).

I have heard stories that during the Depression, a number of Proof gold coins were spent by collectors who could no longer afford to have high face value coins. As an example, it is not uncommon to see Proof Liberty Head double eagles from the 1890’s and the 1900’s which are lightly circulated. By the beginning of the Depression, these coins were not worth substantially more over face value and dozens (if not hundreds) of pieces were placed in circulation.

Proof gold coins which are circulated are very easy to spot. They typically show noticeable marks in the fields and signs of friction on the high spots. Because of the fact that proof gold coins have extremely reflective surfaces, these marks tend to be very heavily amplified and appear worse than they might actually be.

How these marks affect the grade of a Proof gold coin is fairly subjective. It is very unusual for a lightly circulated Proof gold coin to be graded less than PR55 or PR58 by PCGS or NGC. If a Proof gold coin saw a considerable amount of circulation, the surfaces may no longer show enough reflectiveness to convince the grading services that the coin was actually struck as a Proof. In the instances when Proof gold coins of a certain year were struck from the same dies as business strikes, identification may prove to be impossible.

Many business strike gold coins with light wear can be quite attractive; especially if they are original and uncleaned. Lightly circulated Proof gold coins tend to be generally unattractive and, as a result, they do not appeal to most collectors. There are certainly exceptions to this rule and I have seen gold coins which grade PR55 or PR58 which have fairly good overall eye appeal.

Proof gold coins with significant hairlines from prior cleanings are another story. These aren’t really “impaired” and the grading services will generally put them in holders as long as the hairlines present on the surfaces are not totally obtrusive. I have seen a decent number of gold coins graded PR60 or PR61 which have clearly been harshly cleaned with an abrasive. If these were common modern issues, they wouldn’t be encapsulated but the fact that they are rare dictates that they tend to be assigned a “net grade.”

I, for one, do not care for harshly cleaned Proof gold coins. Frankly, they are ugly. And if you are going to collect Proof gold coins, the chances are good that you care about the aesthetics of the coin.

But there are circumstances where I think that Impaired Proof gold coins are very interesting. As an example, I recently bought a PCGS PR 1870 quarter eagle. This is an issue with an original mintage of just 35 Proofs. After some research I discovered that this date was rarer than I thought as a Proof. In fact, there are as few as seven or eight Proofs known. I priced the coin at a touch under $5,000 and got a number of inquiries about it the first day it was listed on my website. Here was a coin that was pretty decent to look at, genuinely rare and reasonably priced, considering its rarity.

In conclusion, I don’t think that I would ever make Impaired Proofs a major part of my coin collection but there are clearly instances when selected examples could be pretty intriguing.

The Finest Known 1858 Eagle

One of my all-time favorite United States gold coins is coming up for sale soon. The coin in question: the finest known 1858 Eagle, graded MS64 by PCGS. The venue of sale: the Heritage May 2007 Platinum Night auction at the Central States Convention. The 1858 is among the rarer and more noteworthy issues in the entire Liberty Head eagle series. There were only 2,521 examples produced of which an estimated three to four dozen exist. While both NGC and PCGS show other examples having been graded in Uncirculated, I believe that the 1858 is unique in strict Mint State. The present example has been graded MS64 by both PCGS and NGC and is very choice for the grade.

This coin has a very interesting history. In 1972, it walked into a coin shop in New York. According to the dealer who purchased it, the owner had acquired the coin from the legendary dealer Wayte Raymond sometime in the 1920’s or the 1930’s. It was placed into a specialist collection and was first sold at auction in 1980 where it realized an impressive $115,000.

After bouncing around between a number of dealers, the coin was sold to Warren Miller, a collector from New Jersey who was assembling what, at the time, was the finest collection of Liberty Head eagles ever attempted. It remained in the Miller collection until 1995 when this set was sold by Heritage. Amazingly, the coin did not meet its reserve and it was retained by Warren Miller. It took Miller quite a while to sell this coin, as the market in the 1990’s was not especially good for esoteric high five-figure/low six figure coins; no matter how rare or neat they were.

Eventually, it was purchased by a type collector who was putting together a set of high grade coins designed by Christian Gobrecht. (And hats off to a type/design collector who chooses one of the single greatest Liberty Head eagles in existence as his ten dollar gold representative...that’s my kind of type collector!). He kept it for a decade or so and then made the decision to sell the coin in the auction mentioned above.

So, what is it about this piece that makes it worthy of so much praise? After all, isn’t it “just” an expensive, esoteric coin? In a sense that is true but the market has become far more appreciative of coins like this since the Dog Days of the mid-to-late 1990’s. While few people “need” this coin to complete their date set of 1858 coinage or their Liberty Head eagle set (and don’t snicker at the last comment; more people collect $10 Libs. by date than you think...) lots of people now appreciate one-of-a-kind coins with a real mystique. Just like this 1858 eagle.

Looking at this piece from a more global perspective, here’s what you need to know. It’s the finest known example of a coin that is genuinely scarce in all grades. It’s a No Motto eagle in a very high grade and even the “common dates” of this design type are very rare in MS64. For many years it was the world-record holder for a Liberty Head eagle (business strike) sold at auction and it has a cult following among gold coin specialists. Most importantly, it’s a gorgeous coin for the grade with choice surfaces, lovely original color and luster and incredible eye appeal for the issue. In short, it’s a true trophy coin and a piece which could be a runaway if two or three savvy, big-budget collectors or investors decide they’ve got to have it.

So what’s the 1858 eagle going to sell for this time around? I’d give it a conservative estimate in the $100,000-125,000 range although I think it’s possible it could bring a lot more This is a coin which I will be excited to watch sell in a few weeks when I’m at the Heritage auction in St. Louis.

Are Coins of the Same Grade Held to the Same Standard?

N.M. from Texas recently asked an excellent question which I’d like to try my best and answer. His question, in part, is as follows: “It seems as though the grading services are holding coins like Indian $10 and Saints to a higher standard than say CC $20's or Territorials, etc. I see MS61 or MS62 CC $20 and Assay pieces with terrible surface preservation relative to what 20th Century coins show for the same grade. I don't believe this is just a case of a few over graded coins. We all know that Territiorials and CC's had a hard life but I always thought coins of the same grade were to be held to the same standard. Care to comment?”

This question is very astute and is unquestionably worthy of some analysis. My initial reaction is that N.M.’s observation is absolutely correct. Territorial gold coins and, to a lesser extent Carson City double eagles, are definitely accorded a different grading standard than 20th century issues such as Indian Head gold or Saint Gaudens double eagles. And I think they should be.

There are at least two legitimate reasons why Territorial gold is graded the way it is (which tends to be, for the most part, very loosely). The first is that these coins were typically created in difficult circumstances by amateur coiners using primitive equipment. We expect them to look bad and, usually, the coins do not let us down. The second reason why the grading services have trouble with these coins is that they are genuinely hard to grade. There are about five people in the world who really, truly know how to grade Territorials (I am not one of them...). And none of them work for the grading services.

There is another factor that comes into play here: what I call the “veneration effect.” The graders at PCGS and NGC are savvy numismatic professionals and they get a lot more excited when they see a Bechtler quarter eagle than when they see a 1926 Indian head quarter eagle. Cool, truly rare coins will always get more of a break from an experienced grader than common coins. The graders at PCGS and NGC can deny this until they turn blue in the face but this statement is absolutely, unequivocally true.

Ironically, this is true even within the same series. I contend that a well-known rarity like an 1854-S quarter eagle is graded on a different standard than a common issue from the same series, like an 1854 Philadelphia quarter eagle. Is this “fair?” Probably not. But human beings are subjective creatures and we are influenced by factors like rarity when we determine a coin’s grade; which, like it or not, is subjective in the first place.

When the grading services first began slabbing coins, they were brutal when it came to Carson City gold. I can remember sending them coins which, even back in the late 1980’s, I thought were nice AU’s but which would routinely be graded VF35 or EF40. This began to change a few years ago and now I think the services often overcompensate when it comes to these coins. I’d like to think it has to do with the fact that the graders read my CC book and became more in touch with strike patterns on early CC half eagles or surface characteristics on 1890’s era CC double eagles. But I’m enough of a pragmatist to know this isn’t true. The market demanded different standards and the services acted accordingly.

This blog isn’t meant to be a condemnation of how PCGS and NGC grade Territorials and Carson City gold. As I said before, I believe that virtually no one has a clue how to grade the former and the market standards for the latter have changed considerably. If the market eventually determines that CC gold is all way overgraded, then you’ll see the price spreads between grades become more compact. This has already happened in some 19th century gold series.

In considering the grading of Carson City gold versus 20th century issues, there are other factors to analyze. CC gold is, as rule, rarer and as I stated above, rarer coins are graded more liberally than common coins. In addition, CC coins saw intense circulation, unlike 20th century coins which seldom entered commercial channels. Furthermore, Mint technology in 1920’s San Francisco was a heck of a lot better than it was in 1870’s Carson City and we can (and should) expect a better looking product which should be held to a more rigorous standard.

The bottom line is, if you judge CC double eagles by the same standards as 1920’s Saints, you are going to hate the CC coins and not buy any. But if you learn what the standards are for CC double eagles and try to find coins that are aesthetically pleasing for the grade, you’ll be able to be a happy collector.

Coin Collecting Questions & Answers

I recently spoke at length to a number of people who were strongly considering becoming coin collectors. They all asked me a number of great questions. I thought I’d share one from each of them along with my answers. Q. How do I find a reputable dealer?

A. I recently moved to a new city (Portland, Oregon) and had to find all new doctors, tradespeople and stores. I made my decisions two ways. For the big decisions I relied on recommendations from trusted friends and acquaintances. For the less significant decisions I went with my gut. Choosing the right coin dealer(s) is the same.

If you’ve decided to form a highly specialized collection (Middle Date Large Cents, Three Dollar gold pieces or Civil War Tokens, as examples) find out who wrote the standard reference works and who typically handles the greatest number of choice, high quality pieces within a specific specialization. If you are working on a more general collection, ask around. Post on the PCGS and NGC message boards and determine whether Dealer X has a good reputation or not. I’d also strongly recommend sticking with PNG dealers. These individuals tend to be more established and reputable and most of the leading dealers are members of this organization.

And, finally, trust your gut. If a dealer strikes you as being a blowhard or a sleaze, don’t deal with him. Remember: your first impression about a coin dealer (or just about anyone else, for that matter...) is usually correct.

Q. Can I teach myself to grade coins based on images on websites?

A. Not a chance. Coins are three dimensional objects and until images are capable of accurately representing three dimensional objects they will never show subtleties such as luster and surface preservation. A good photograph can give a new collector a decent impression of a coin’s appearance but a clever photographer can manipulate an image through lighting or digital enhancement(s). Not to mention the fact that most new collectors do not really even know what they are looking at when they view images.

So, how does a new collector teach himself to grade? I’m not sure I can provide an answer that most collectors want to hear. I think that many collectors will NEVER be able to learn how to grade really well because grading is an aptitude. It’s no different than being able to hit a baseball or not. A limited number of people can hit a baseball well and only a few hundred people in the world can do it well enough to play professionally. Same with coin grading.

What the collector CAN teach himself is how to determine of a coin is nice or not. You may never be able to consistently figure if an MS66 is a nicer coin than an MS65 but you can be taught that certain “looks” on a coins are preferable to others. And that, I think, is what the new collector should aspire to learn.

Q. Is it important to go to coin shows?

A. It depends. I personally think that going to third-rate coins shows is a complete waste of time. But for the new collector, a good show like FUN or Summer ANA or Baltimore can be a useful experience. I think shows are more important as fact-gathering sources for new collectors than as places to buy coins. At shows you have to make quick decisions in a setting that is less than optimal. If you establish a good relationship with a dealer or two, you can be sent coins on an approval basis, view them at home, study price and population data and generally feel a lot less pressured than if you have to make a snap decision at the dealer’s table.

Q. How important is price when it comes to buying coins?

A. Everyone likes to feel that they got a fair value when they buy something. The same holds true with coins. But collectors who are totally focused on price are probably going to wind-up with a mediocre collection. I’m not making this statement just because I’m a dealer and I’m trying to “convince” you to pay a price for my coins, or anyone else’s. I can tell you, however, that to buy nice coins you have to be willing to pay a strong price. Collectors who are primarily focused on price are probably going to do this at the exclusion of quality.

So how, then, do you establish what a fair price is for a coin? For items that trade with frequency, like a common date MS65 St. Gaudens double eagle, this is very easy. You can see what examples have sold for at auction and you can check various dealer websites and see what specific coins are being listed for. With rare, thinly traded coins it is harder to determine value. Auction prices realized are certainly a good source. Asking a trusted dealer what you would have to pay for a certain coin is good idea as well.

Do you have questions about rare coin collecting that you’d like answered? If so, please feel free to email them to me at dwn@ont.com. I make no guarantees that they will get featured in future blogs but if I like your question(s) there is a good chance that they will become a topic of discussion.

DWN Sells Silver, Too!

There’s a good side and a bad side to being a well-known specialist. On the plus side, when a collection of rare gold coins comes on the market, I am usually offered first shot. But I’ve become somewhat pigeon-holed as a guy who seldom strays from the Gold Ghetto when buying and selling. I guess I was expecting some sort of reaction when I listed a group of Carson City silver for sale on my website yesterday. But I was pretty surprised at how many people called or wrote me to ask “Hey, what’s up with the silver coins on your site, Mr. Gold Expert.”

OK, to summarize: No, I’m not giving up my hard-earned position as The Man when it comes to Southern gold. Yes, I am going to start dealing more extensively in non-gold coins, especially the silver issues from Carson City and New Orleans.

I have a long history when it comes to 19th century silver. Back in the 1970’s when I was a young kid collecting coins, I couldn’t begin to think about paying the going rates for a Charlotte or Dahlonega piece. So I became a serious collector of Seated Liberty issues, especially quarter dollars. I assembled a nice partial set of circulated Seated quarters (which I sold in the mid-1980’s and which I wish I had held on to, as there were some pretty nifty coins in it) and to this day I remain fascinated with Seated (and Bust) issues.

A few people asked me yesterday if I am “bored” with Southern gold. Absolutely not—I still love these coins and continue to get excited by pieces as humble as a crusty 1851-C gold dollar or as exotic as an MS62 1839-C half eagle.

What does frustrate me, I’m afraid, is how difficult it has become to find nice gold coins for my inventory. So many pieces have been destroyed in the last few years. As a purist, it makes me sort of sad to see many of the nice Charlotte and Dahlonega coins I remember from the past now ruined forever. And as a pragmatist, I know I have fewer and fewer Winter-esque coins available to sell.

So the obvious solution is for me to diversify. Part of me would like to try a brand new area like World Gold... except for the fact that I know nothing about these coins and at this point of my life I am not eager to start a long and probably expensive learning process.

Thus, the thought of going back to my roots and rekindling my long love affair with Seated and Bust coins. This is an area I’m already pretty knowledgeable in. In fact, I’ve quietly built two of the finest collections of Carson City silver ever assembled as well as a few other world-class sets of Bust and Seated coins, including many very rare Proofs and alot of neat, finest known or Condition Census pieces as well.

My perspective on the silver coin market is just like I view gold coins. I like coins that are rare and I like coins which are original.

So, is DWN about to become The Source for rare silver coinage? Not likely. But I think there’s room in the coin market for a reputable dealer to sell nice $2,000-10,000 PCGS and NGC graded silver coins which are attractive, original and rare. Coins like an 1873-CC Arrows Dime in VF or a nicely toned Uncirculated 1848-O half dollar. Coins, in other words, that offer the collector good value and which I would buy for myself if I were still building a Seated Liberty or Bust silver collection.

2007 Charlotte ANA Show Review

I think if you ask most dealers if they had a good show at the spring ANA in Charlotte they would give you a resounding “no!!” To be honest, I didn’t think I had an especially successful show either until I added up my sales numbers on the plane ride home. My sales volume at the show was actually extremely impressive. There were some definite problems with this show. First and foremost was the fact that it was exactly a week before the Baltimore convention. A number of larger dealers decided that they did not want to attend back-to-back shows on the east coast. I know I was not excited about having to fly from the left coast to the right coast twice in less than a week (except for the 10,000+ miles I’d be adding to my Frequent Flyer Account balance...) For the most part, this show lacked any buzz and the public attendance seemed pretty light on Thursday and Friday.

I go to coin shows primarily to buy and from that standpoint, the Charlotte show was not a success. There was an almost total lack of fresh material available. Luckily, I was able to purchase a few very neat items from collectors who I know in the Charlotte area (some of which are already listed for sale on my website; others are out being graded at PCGS or NGC and will be listed in the next few weeks).

Due to a lack of submissions, NGC stopped taking coins for on-site grading and this meant that almost nothing was “made” at the show. That, combined with the fact that most people brought just a small portion of their inventory with them, meant that very little interesting material was available for sale.

I would suggest to the ANA that in the coming years they make sure that their spring convention is held a few weeks before or after Baltimore. I am not attending any shows in April and, upon reflection, I’d tell the ANA to choose a slower month like this to hold their show.

Some dealers complained about the location but I think Charlotte is an excellent coin town and a really first-rate city. The convention facility was excellent, I liked my hotel and you can’t beat the friendliness and hospitality of the locals. I just wished I didn’t have to fly 3,000 miles to get there.

I didn’t participate in the Heritage sale with my usual enthusiasm for a number of reasons. I did attend part of Friday night’s gold session, mainly to watch the sale of Steve Duckor’s amazing 1920-S $10.00 in PCGS MS67. As I had written in an earlier blog, I expected this coin to set a record for the Indian Head eagle series and to become the first example of this type to eclipse the $1 million mark. My prediction proved prescient as the final price realized was an amazing $1.725 million.

The 1920-S opened up at $550,000 and it quickly shattered the $1 million mark. There were at least five people bidding on the coin and three were still very much alive at over $1 million. Needless to say, Dr. Duckor was thrilled about the sale and I’m happy that he did so well. If I’m not mistaken, this is very likely the most money any living collector has ever made on a single coin. Steve paid $85,000 for the 1920-S back in 1982. I’m not sure what this works out to on an annualized basis but a profit of nearly a million-and-a-half bucks on a single coin seems pretty impressive to me.

Prices at the rest of the sale seemed strong. I didn’t buy much and even some of the coins which I thought I bid strongly on went primarily to Internet bidders.

The market seems more two-tiered than ever. As an example, I had some exceptionally nice high quality fresh Charlotte and Dahlonega half eagles available at the show and nearly every one of them sold quickly. But I saw tons of low quality, overgraded dipped-n-stripped pieces which, even at substantial discounts relative to Trends, weren’t selling. This seems to be the case in nearly every series. Most of the coins available for sale now are extremely low end and this is having a negative impact on the prices of the nice coins. But knowledgeable specialists know that really nice coins are really rare and that they sell for really strong prices in this really two-tiered environment. (Got that straight?)

I expect next week’s Baltimore show to be very active. This doesn’t necessarily mean that lots of great coins will magically appear on the market but every dealer I spoke to in Charlotte is excited about the show, meaning that the mood, at least, will be very upbeat.

The 1864 Quarter Eagle

One of my all-time favorite “sleeper” issues is the 1864 quarter eagle. Although not well-known outside of the specialist community, the 1864 is not only among the rarest Liberty Head quarter eagles of any date, it is also one of the rarer Liberty Head issues of any denomination struck for general circulation. Production of gold coinage at all mints was extremely limited during the final years of the Civil War with the exception of double eagles. The Philadelphia mint all but eliminated the quarter eagle denomination from 1863 through 1865. In 1863, only 30 Proofs were struck (none were issued for circulation) while in 1864, a total of 2,824 pieces were struck for circulation. In 1865, the mintage dropped back down to a scant 1,520 and it would remain at well under 10,000 per year until 1873.

You would expect the 1864 quarter eagle to be a rare coin with an original mintage of just 2,824 but it has a very low survival rate. I estimate that no more than 15 or so exist including one or two which have been harshly cleaned. It is interesting to note that the 1865, with a mintage which is nearly 50% lower, is at least twice as available.

The moment you begin to study some numbers about the 1864 quarter eagle, the more impressive this date becomes. As an example, PCGS has graded just eight examples in all grades, giving it the second lowest population of any business strike Liberty Head quarter eagle (trailing only the extremely rare 1864). NGC has graded even fewer with just six coins recorded.

Studying auction records for the last fifteen years provides even more impressive results. There have only been twelve coins sold at auction since 1993. Perhaps the most remarkable fact about this date is that the Bass collection, which contained multiple examples of most very rare quarter eagles, had just a single low grade example: a cleaned piece with the sharpness of Extremely Fine.

I thought it would be interesting to create a Condition Census for this date which is something I’m not certain has ever been done before. Here are the finest 1864 quarter eagles of which I am aware.

1. Private collection, via Spectrum Numismatics, ex: Spink America 10/96: 57 ($132,000), Byron Reed collection. Graded MS67 by NGC. I think this is one of the most amazing United States gold coins in existence. It is among the two or three best pre-1880 quarter eagles I have ever seen and it is among my favorite United States gold coins of any date or denomination.

2. Kansas collection, ex: Doug Winter, Nevada collection, Bowers and Merena 1/96: 1848 ($27,500; as NGC MS60). Graded MS61 by PCGS.

3. Kansas collection, ex: Doug Winter. Graded MS61 by NGC. It is in a different collection than #2. I actually handled both of these coins simultaneously and I am almost certain that this was the only time in numismatic history that a coin dealer had two Uncirculated 1864 quarter eagles in stock at one time(!)

4. PCGS has graded one piece AU58. It is possible that it may be either coin #2 or one of the coins listed below.

5. Heritage 9/02: 8005 ($20,700), ex: Heritage 1/01: 8099 (unsold). Graded AU58 by NGC.

In addition to these five coins, there is a single piece graded AU55 by PCGS, two coins graded AU50 by NGC and a single coin graded AU50 by PCGS. Altogether, there are a total of two pieces known in Uncirculated, another six or so in AU and probably another half dozen that grade EF.

Every 1864 quarter eagle I have seen is very well struck. Both the obverse and the reverse tend to display full detail in the centers. A few are just a bit weak on the eagle’s right (or facing) leg. The surfaces are quite scuffy and show a number of marks and hairlines. As one might expect from an issue with such a low mintage figure, the surfaces on most of the survivors are quite reflective. I have seen a few lower grade pieces which appeared to be more frosty than reflective but this was probably the result of long, intense wear. The natural coloration is a medium to deep orange-gold hue. Most every piece I have seen has been cleaned or dipped at one time, although the Byron Reed and PCGS MS61 coins listed above were both quite original. The eye appeal for this issue is definitely below average. Most 1864 quarter eagles show a good deal of wear, have been cleaned and do not possess pleasing color.

The current Trends value for this date is $21,000 in EF40 and $27,500 in AU50 with no prices listed for grades higher than this. In my opinion, these figures are way too low, especially for AU50. This is a remarkably rare coin that appears for sale at a rate of less than once per year and if it were a part of a more popular series than Liberty Head quarter eagles, it would trade for at least $40,000-50,000 in AU grades.

Numismatic Miscellany

It’s another depressing, rainy day in Portland. What better way to share the love than to touch on some miscellaneous topics which while interesting are probably not “deep” enough to write a full blog on. A friend of mine recently made an interesting observation. In the six years since the final Bass sale, there has been any number of great specialized gold coin collections offered for sale at auction. This includes but is not limited to the Duke’s Creek collection of Dahlonega gold, the Old West and Morgan collections of Carson City gold, the Kutasi collection of Indian Head gold, the Lang collection of Carson City gold, etc. But in this time period, there have been no great specialized collections of early gold coinage, particularly quarter eagles and half eagles (specifically from 1813 to 1834).

Clearly, these coins are popular. And they have doubled or tripled in price in the past six years so you’d think that the new price levels would have brought a collection or two on the market. So where are these coins? If you look through most typical auctions these days you might find decent examples of the 1813, 1814, 1818 and 1820 half eagles. But where are the rarer dates?

I’m not certain that I know the answer but my guess is that a) these coins are rare enough that even if a relative “flood” were to come on the market you’d still only be talking about two or three examples of dates like an 1827 quarter eagle or an 1826 half eagle every year and b) the collectors who own coins like this tend to be deep-pocketed and the sort of people who once they buy a nice quality 1827 quarter eagle or 1826 half eagle keep it in their collection indefinitely with no intention to sell it. Option C, which I subscribe to a bit less, is that there are really no “collections” or coins like this in the first place, given their rarity and the high price per coin that collecting these series entails.

In the past month I’ve had no less than four or five clients mention to me that they really dislike NGC holders, particularly when it comes to small-sized coins. Before I start in on this point, let me make myself clear as I realize what I just said is a bit ambiguous and it could be misinterpreted. These people were commenting on the aesthetics of the NGC holder itself and not on the ability of NGC to grade coins.

After carefully looking at a few of the gold dollars and quarter eagles in my inventory which are in NGC holders, I think I can see their point. Small sized coins don’t look good in NGC holders. The coins look jammed into their openings and the rims are often lost. Many pieces wind up tilted at a rakish angle because they don’t fit properly. My suggestion to NGC would be to enlarge the openings for smaller coins. In PCGS holders, these coins appear to “float” and look more spacious because of the fact they are placed in a membrane which gives them more space.

I’m sure that NGC has more important items on their plate but when a number of sophisticated collectors all complain to me about their dislike for these holders (and voice their complaints completely independently of one another) it makes me think that NGC might have a big problem with small coins (sorry, couldn’t resist that pun…)

I recently read in a numismatic book dealers catalog (of all places…) that it was time to retire the auction catalog and have all coin auction catalogs appear on-line or on CD’s. While this sounds like a great theory in practice and it makes me feel all Jetsons-like to think that I could live my coin life paper-free, I do not agree with this idea.

There are two reasons that I like auction catalogs. The first is their tangibility. I may be showing my age here but I’m the sort of person who likes spending an hour every morning reading actual newspapers and not waking up with my cups of joe and the New York Times online. There is something visceral about having a newspaper in my hands that gives me pleasure. The same is true with a coin auction catalog.

The other reason I like the auction catalog format is that I can make notes in a paper catalog when I view the coins. If I’m perusing the latest Heritage or Stack’s sale online, I can’t make notes unless I print out pages. And if I have to resort to doing this, why not just have a catalog?

One thing I would suggest to the auction firms is to give their bidders a chance to custom design their catalogs. Customization is a huge new trend in retailing and it allows someone, as an example, to design a pair of Nike sneakers online according to their personal specifications. I would personally prefer that I get a Heritage catalog in the mail that contained only the series which interest me. This would reduce the bulk of the typical catalog and it would make me feel a bit more “green” knowing that I saved a few hundreds pages of paper every month. Given the technology which is ready available in the area of printing and customization, I would suggest that specialized catalogs are something that could be done easily and cheaply.